State Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, has asked Gov. Charlie Crist’s office to stop payment on a $20 million cash incentive awarded to an animation company hoping to open a Port St. Lucie studio, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Palm Beach Post.

Domino, an investment manager, said the state’s money was at “significant risk” with Wyndcrest Holdings, the parent company of Digital Domain, a private California-based studio that specializes in movie effects.

Domino lost money in an investment deal with Wyndcrest CEO John Textor about 12 years ago, but Domino said the letter to Crist was not retribution. He also acknowledged he had not read the company’s application for the money. While the records are confidential, lawmakers can receive a briefing about specific economic development projects.

Rest of the story here.

Domino’s letter is here. The full response from Wyndcrest Holdings, the company that was awarded the money, is here.

Republican Marco Rubio said today he collected $1,010,980 for his U.S. Senate campaign during the third quarter of the year. Rubio, running an underdog campaign against Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, said earlier this month that his total was just under the $1 million mark.

Rubio’s campaign reports they have about $900,000 cash on hand after raising a total of $1.6 million for the entire year. Crist has raised more than $6 million in about half of the time.

“This is nothing less than a strong statement about the direction people believe our Republican Party, our state and our nation should take,” Rubio said in a prepared statement. ” I am thankful for this outpouring of support from those who believe principled conservative leadership is needed to maintain America’s greatness. With their help, we are laying and expanding the foundation for success in 2010.”

Tallahassee social services advocate Budd Bell, who spent nearly four decades lobbying the legislature for children and families, died this morning, the News Service of Florida reported.

She was 94.

For more than a generation, Bell was a familiar sight in the halls of the Capitol where she fiercely fought for services for poor children, the mentally ill and the disabled.

Bell pushed lawmakers to create the Baker Act, which allows mentally ill or suicidal individuals to be temporarily hospitalized instead of sent to jail.

Bell, a founding member of the National Association of Social Workers in 1955, was also instrumental in requiring child care centers to be licensed.

The Florida trial lawyers political organization – Florida Justice PAC – spent more than $23,000 on food and beverages since the November election, including a $1,700 bash at a Miami Beach nightclub and two inexpensive tabs at a Ft. Lauderdale gay bar, according to state campaign records.

The expenses were filed under “other distributions” unlike most other campaign filings which include food and lodging spending under “expenditures.”

State records show that the association’s political arm spent a total of $125 at Purgatory bar in Ft. Lauderdale – $45 on July 8 and $80 on Sept. 15. The bar’s web site boasts of hosting the annual Leather Masked Ball, the “premier leather event in South Florida.”

The lawyers PAC also spent $1,706.93 on May 14 at Set Nightclub on trendy Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.

Set is a high-end, VIP lounge popular with celebs. Last year, Kevin Federline dropped $1,500 at the hot spot (and left a $700 tip) according to the bar’s web site. Pamela Anderson and Justin Timberlake also made appearances there.

Check back later for a response from the trial lawyers, who are now huddling in Orlando for an executive meeting.

State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Coral Springs, said this morning he will not enter the special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

“I gave this really serious consideration and I enjoy my life as it is,” said Ring, who said serving in Congress would disrupt his family life.

The Broward County resident also noted that 71 percent of congressional District 19 voters live in Palm Beach County.

“Not that it’s not winnable, but it’s primarily a Palm Beach seat,” Ring said.

Ring, a wealthy former Yahoo executive, was considered a potentially formidable candidate because of his ability to pour personal money into an expected short campaign.

State Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, former Broward County Mayor Ben Graber and Jose Ruiz, all Democrats, have announced their intentions to run. Wexler is stepping down in January to head a Middle East-focused think tank.

Associated Industries of Florida sent a press release demanding an investigation of Public Service Commissioner Nancy Argenziano to Florida Power & Light Co. for review yesterday, officials for both groups said.

A version of the release posted on The Sayfie Review shows the author of the release as “FPL_User” last saved by “Lisa Garcia” and the company as “Florida Power & Light.”

Lisa Garcia works for Ron Sachs Communications, the Tallahassee-based PR agency handling media for AIF on the issue.

AIF has joined FPL in support of its requested $1.3 billion base rate hike.

FPL is a member of the business backed association that refuses to reveal its membership or how much they pay to belong to the group.

The latest bit of drama in the FPL/Argenziano/PSC serial unfolds as the regulatory panel is scheduled to vote on the Juno Beach-based utility proposed $200 million rate increase to cover the costs of nuclear plants not yet built.

Sachs executive Alia Faraj, a former spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush, said that her shop crafted the press release and gave it to FPL.
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If he ever decides to reenter politics, departing U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, has $977,616 in left-over money in his campaign account, according to a report filed Thursday night.

Wexler announced this week he’s resigning in the middle of his seventh term to head a Middle East-focused nonprofit. A special election will fill his seat.

Wexler chief of staff and consultant Eric Johnson said his boss hasn’t decided what to do with the money, but is likely to keep a chunk of it in an open campaign account.

While state campaign accounts must be liquidated within 90 days of the end of a campaign, there’s no such requirement for federal accounts. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, for instance, still has nearly $1.2 million in his campaign account more than three years after he resigned. Candidates are not allowed to divert campaign money for personal use.

Democratic St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft’s challenge of freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, is off to a slow financial start.

Craft, who entered the race in early August, raised $61,605 through Sept. 30, according to a report filed today. His campaign ended the quarter with $51,546 in the bank. Rooney raised $114,655 during the quarter and has $247,416 on hand.

Congressional money-raising reports are due by midnight tonight.

Republican Allen West, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, raised $281,508 during the quarter and has $257,416 on hand. Klein’s report has not yet been filed. He began the quarter with nearly $2 million in the bank.

With his wife and three kids sitting with him on the couch in his West Boca home, Democratic state Sen. Ted Deutch announced this afternoon he’s running for the congressional seat of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who’s stepping down in January to head a Middle East think tank.

Deutch is expected to get Wexler’s backing in what could be a crowded Democratic race for the Palm Beach-Broward District 19 seat. Deutch said his consulting team includes Wexler’s chief of staff and political consultant, Eric Johnson. Another Wexler aide, Josh Rogin, was on hand for Deutch’s announcement.

Deutch said he might need to raise $2 million for the special election, which is expected in early 2010.

Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber has already announced his intent to run, as has Democrat Jose Ruiz. Also eyeing the race are West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter, state Sen. Jeremy Ring of Coral Springs and former state Rep. Irving Slosberg of Boca Raton.

Public Service Commissioner Nancy Argenziano dismissed a business-backed group’s demand for an investigation into her BlackBerry messages with her former aide as ridiculous and an attempt to intimidate her.

“It’s highly suspicious and rather stinky at this point,” Argenziano said.

Associated Industries of Florida President Barney Bishop today asked for a PSC inspector general investigation into thousands of messages exchanged between Argenziano and Larry Williams, a former aide whom Argenziano fired for giving his secret BlackBerry personal identification number to a Florida Power & Light Co. attorney.

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State Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera joined the call for an internal investigation into BlackBerry messages sent by utility regulators.

Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami, serves on the Public Service Commission Nominating Council that selects who gets to serve on the regulatory panel. The governor makes the final picks.

“The PIN messages sent and received by Commissioner Nancy Argenziano and released by the PSC, coupled with their discussion of private emails so far unreleased and sent to non-public accounts in an attempt to evade public scrutiny, raise serious questions about Commissioner Argenziano’s impartiality and her ability to give a fair hearing to those appearing before her,” Lopez-Cantera wrote in a statement distributed to the media.

Earlier today, Associated Industries of Florida President Barney Bishop demanded the PSC’s inspector general check out Commissioner Nancy Argenziano’s BlackBerry PIN messages.

Bishop said Argenziano may have broken rules restricting communications between the regulators and the utilities and may have acted in a manner unbecoming a commissioner, a violation of her oath of office.

It’s no surprise that Lopez-Cantera has jumped on the Argeziano attack wagon.
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First Lady Michelle Obama was in Miami this morning to address the Florida Campus Compact awards gala. After thanking, among others, State University System Chancellor Frank Brogran and Miami-Dade College President Eduardo Padron (whom she apparently impressed with a salsa dance on Tuesday), Obama spent most of her speech praising the group’s work to promote citizenship and community service among college students.

“You all know we need business leaders motivated by both the pursuit of profit and the pursuit of the public good,” she said.

” If we want to fight climate change and create green jobs in this economy, we’re going to need CEOs who are committed to preserving our environment. If we want to boost student achievement in our schools, we are going to need businesswomen and men, and lawyers, and scientists and others willing to serve as partners and mentors.

“If we want to pursue and promote better wellness in all of our communities, we’re going to need health care professionals, we’re going to need hospital executives who understand the needs of underserved populations.”

The transcript of her entire speech is after the jump.

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Associated Industries of Florida president Barney Bishop took media matters into his own hands this morning after being fed up with a lack of attention to a utility regulator’s BlackBerry messages.

Bishop is demanding that the Public Service Commission inspector general conduct an investigation into messages exchanged by Commissioner Nancy Argenziano and her former aide Larry Williams that he said raises questions about her impartiality on an impending $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike request.

AIF is supporting FPL, one of its business association members, in the rate case.

Bishop has put the thousands of messages – made available through public records requests by news agencies – on AIF’s website, but singled out Argenziano’s in a press conference this morning.

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Palm Beach County voters can expect two blockbuster state Senate races if trends from recent campaign finance reports hold up.

In two primary battles among candidates hoping to replace Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, the candidates combined to collect more than $305,000 during the third quarter. The four have a total of $826,000 on hand, more than 10 months away from the August primary.

In the race to replace Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, collected $132,921 from July through September. About 20 percent came from insurers and attorneys.

Read the rest here. The story was printed in the Oct. 15 edition of The Palm Beach Post.

To see how all the bankrolls are shaping up for candidates in contested races on the Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast, click here.

Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson resigned from her post this morning, the day after meeting with Gov. Charlie Crist who appointed her to the post in Feb. 2008.

“I had a meeting with the Governor the other day to talk about some opportunities that lie ahead, and I regret that because of those opportunities I will no longer be able to serve as your Secretary,” Benson wrote in an e-mail to AHCA workers this morning.

Benson, a former state representative from the Panhandle, is expected to jump into the attorney general’s race next month, according to sources close to the Pensacola Republican. That could elevate interest in a GOP primary against Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, who’s already announced his candidacy to replace Bill McCollum. Democratic state Sens. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Dan Gelber of Miami Beach are already engaged in a heated battle for the state’s top law enforcement chief.

Crist tapped Benson, a bond lawyer, to head AHCA in 2008. Before that, she left her Pensacola House seat to head DBPR, again at Crist’s bidding.

In the House, Benson was the force behind a model Medicaid reform project that has had mixed results. (more…)

Two Louisiana Democrats — Sen. Mary Landrieu and Rep. Charlie Melancon, who’s challenging Republican Sen. David Vitter — will be the headliners for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s annual fund-raising dinner on Nov. 14.

The event used to be known as the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, but Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson’s slave ownership and $20 bill portrait model Andrew Jackson’s “Trail of Tears” Indian-removal policies offended the sensibilities of local Dem leaders. The name of the event was changed to the Truman-Kennedy-Johnson dinner instead.

County Democratic Chairman Mark Alan Siegel said the party hopes to draw about 500 people to the $150-and-up event.

In what has become a familiar ritual at gatherings of Republican activists across Florida, former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio trounced Gov. Charlie Crist in a straw poll of GOP Senate candidates tonight.

The vote of Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee members was 90-17 for Rubio, who trails the more moderate Crist in fund-raising and polls of likely GOP primary voters but is a hero with the party’s conservative activist base.

Former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith, now a Florida resident and GOP candidate, got 11 votes in the poll. Physician and former congressional candidate Marion Thorpe got 4 votes.

The Palm Beach County result makes Rubio 9-0 in straw polls of county Republican Executive Committee members around Florida. Conservatives dominate the GOP committees across the state, just as liberals dominate Democratic executive committees.

The most recent public polls of likely GOP Senate primary voters were taken in mid-August. A Rasmussen poll showed Crist with a 53-31 lead and a Quinnipiac poll gave Crist a 55-26 advantage.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, was instrumental in getting little-known Democrats Ted Deutch and Jeremy Ring elected to the state Senate in 2006.

Now the Wexler proteges could battle each other for their mentor’s congressional seat.

Boca Raton Sen. Deutch and Coral Springs Sen. Ring are among the half dozen or more Democrats who might enter a special election for Wexler’s Palm Beach-Broward congressional seat when Wexler steps down in January to head a Middle East think tank.

Wexler remains close to Deutch and Ring, but a Democratic insider said Wexler is likely to endorse Deutch as his replacement.

Other prominent Democrats eyeing the race include West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter, former Broward Mayor Ben Graber and former Boca Raton state Rep. Irving Slosberg.

The winner of the Democratic primary will likely claim the seat in a district where Democrats hold more than a 2-to-1 registration edge over Republicans and no GOP candidate has received more than 34.4 percent since 1996.

Primary and general election dates will be set after Gov. Charlie Crist receives a resignation letter from Wexler.

Graber, who got 6.6 percent against Wexler last year as a no-party candidate, announced today he will run as a Democrat in the special election.

Other potential candidates said they were in soul-searching mode.

“I have to talk to my friends and family and see what’s in my heart,” said Frankel.

“I am talking to community members, I am talking to leaders all across my district and most importantly I am talking to my family,” said Deutch, who expects to make an announcement Thursday.

Ring said he is “absolutely investigating it, considering it. I should have a decision this weekend.”

Ritter said she’ll make a decision next week.

With about 71 percent of District 19 voters in Palm Beach County, Broward candidates Ring and Ritter both said they would have to analyze whether multiple Broward candidates would hurt each other and maximize Palm Beach County’s advantage.

Republican operative Beth Kigel, who chaired Charlie Crist’s 2006 governor campaign in Palm Beach County when most GOP bigs backed Tom Gallagher, will head Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign in the county. Kigel, the Palm Beach County GOP vice chairwoman, will have the title of organizational chairwoman for the county.

Republican elected officials on Crist’s team for Palm Beach County include County Commissioner Steven Abrams, state Reps. Carl Domino of Jupiter and William Snyder of Stuart, Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel, Palm Beach Gardens Mayor William Russo and school board member Monroe Benaim.

Crist’s campaign rolled out the Palm Beach County leadership list a few hours before the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee is scheduled to conduct a straw poll on the Senate race. Former House Speaker Marco Rubio is 8-0 in REC straw polls in other counties.

Read the complete Crist campaign list after the jump…..

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BOCA RATON — Peace in the Middle East can’t wait — and neither can he — U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said this morning in explaining his decision to resign in the middle of his seventh term in Congress.

The Boca Raton Democrat and self-described “fire-breathing liberal” confirmed he will resign in January to become president of the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

Wexler, 48, said he decided to take the post after discussions over the last two months with the center’s chairman, Slim-Fast founder and major Democratic donor S. Daniel Abraham of Palm Beach.

Wexler’s early support of Barack Obama’s presidential bid fueled speculation he might be in line for an Obama administration appointment. But Wexler said he never had any serious talks about such a job.

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